Mirror Image
by LaMissile
Summary: Tantomile and Coricopat find each other and then the Jellicles' destiny, where they themselves have a pivotal role. Not CoricopatTantomile.
1. Chapter 1

Tantomile and Coricopat, with some twists.

Disclaimer: I really don't own much of anything, certainly not this.

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Tantomile leaped over a pile of Evelasting-Cat-knows-what to find the mouse. It was not an ordinary mouse, this she knew, she would not be diving through the collections of trash littering the junkyard, otherwise. She concentrated fully on the snow white creature and it lit up like a candle in her mind. Tantomile didn't even need to sniff it out; its form shone in her head, leading up and around bits of trash she had never before seen in her life. Though some were quite perilously and unexpectedly placed in the cat's path, her paws never failed her on her mad dash. Occasionally she caught sight of the tribes' faces en route to her mouse. They escaped her rampage, not pretending to understand her agenda.

'Why haven't they told me about this interesting corner of junkyard? I don't like being the last cat to know.', Tantomile thought absently, then turned on her back paw to leap directly up onto a narrow ledge. The motion extended her form gracefully, which then regrouped to brace for the impact of landing. Her whiskers swished back in the air and when her paws touched down, they sprung back to their original position to brush the calm face of the mouse. Tantomile hung in time, one paw raised to trap her prey.

In this space in time, Tantomile's mind's eye opened to see the mouse clearly. Its tiny white body raised itself on its hind paws to look fearlessly into the face of death. Her mind's eye saw only the brave creature's single thought, "I see you now, I will again." Tantomile's paw descended, and she crushed her guide's form beneath it. She licked the blood from her paw, while its scent and mental glow overwhelmed her. The pure mystical blood charged through her, regenerating the cat with the essence of a smaller being greater then she.

Tantomile awoke from her dream, as she had many times before. Calmly, she savoured the faintly lingering taste, wishing it would never leave her rough tongue. But it already had, though it left its great magic behind, ready for use. She opened one eye to the morning, then the other, and finally her third, slowly and gingerly, as the colours and thoughts that invaded her adept mind were always a shock.

The life of the mouse gave her the very quality that made her own so unique. She was special, and there was no one like her.

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Obviously, Tantomile's going to get a bit of a shock, but only if you give me lots of reviews! Oh, and I'll try to make the chapters longer. 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Not mine, not yours. Unless you're a friendly lawyer, sent by the true owner.

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Tantomile padded her soft way, softer than even the quietest of cats- as she knew when they didn't of the position of the smallest piece of junk that would give her position away to any listener- down away from her nest to where her breakfast was today. She always ate away from the others, many were jealous of what she sensed to be waiting for her. Trotting by the nooks and crannies other cats called home, she weaved in and out of the trashpiles towards her meal. Tantomile had the lightest taste of sparrow in her mouth today, she suspected this was what awaited her. 

Trying not to concentrate on the rumblings of her stomach, as she had no idea what the mystical energies inside of her would do if she allowed that even by accident, Tantomile instead peered curiously around the weak shadows cast by the garbage mounds. Then she was startled by the slight movement of an unexpected creature in her surroundings. Shocked at the very idea of ever being startled, Tantomile pounced in the direction of the offending motion. ' White Mouse, you have failed me!' she thought quite loudly and angrily. This cat was not supposed to be taken by surprise.

Whatever it was that she had pawed for in the shadows managed to right itself on its paws and take off. It dashed through a sunny patch on the ground and Tantomile followed at full speed, fueled on by her rage. She did not believe her own sharp eyes when she saw its form clearly for the first time, or the second and onward until she herded it into a strongly lit section of the junkyard and decided not to deny it anymore. 'Why have you come to me now?' she pleaded mentally to her guide, the white mouse. 'Is this what you want, to die in daylight? Tell me!' She recieved no answer and continued the chase, her mind in turmoil.

The white mouse shot up a particularily high stack of trash and Tantomile followed, with only a moment's hesitation at the base. With no reply from her quarry, she could only assume she was doing right. Up she went. The mouse was waiting for her at the peak, flanked on either side by large cereal boxes. He was sitting in a picture-perfect scene from her dream, except it wasn't, this time. Tantomile was never this hungry in her dreams. White Mouse was waiting to be broken underneath her claws. Slowly she raised her paw and brought it down, executioner style. The mouse said his lines right on time, and this settled her for all of half a second. While her own paw covered the red-streaked white fur of the mouse, another fully matching paw concealed the opposite end from view.

Through the gap created by the boxes, she glimpsed a familiar eye, surrounded by familiar fur. Tantomile's heart pounded as she wondered at the white mouse's magick, because it must be. To get a clearer view of the illusion facing her, she knocked the box on her left off with her free paw. In complete synch, her right-paw cereal container was shoved off the pile and she was left on top of a garbage pile with a mouse carcass and a cat who was clearly her double down to the whiskers.

She defensively drew back her paw from her dead guide and the double did the same. It was the magick of White Mouse, sent to teach her something. Tantomile scrunched her nose and the other cat did the same. It was a mirror, left here and shifted naturally to hide its edges from any cat looking into it. Now for a true test. She spoke, "Tantomile." and nearly fainted when the other opened its mouth at the same time. But said, "Coricopat." instead.

They sighed, and stepped up upon the peak so that the white mouse lay between their forepaws. "I am not Coricopat." Tantomile said slowly, reveling at this statement.

With no surprise from either party, Coricopat said at the same time, "I am not Tantomile."

"Why are you here?" they asked each other. Tantomile realized that her own voice paired with this strange tom's, as he clearly was a he, made a melody she rather liked. She wouldn't mind talking this way with Coricopat.

"I was following White Mouse." She minded now. Her guide was all her own! No cat shared her power! From the looks flitting across Coricopat's face he was thinking her thoughts as well. Tantomile reeled and hissed, the tom sharing her every move. "Stop it! Stop copying me! Stop!!!" they cried and she snapped to the right of his neck, her incisors grazing the skin under his gray fur. Instantly she felt her own neck bleed as Coricopat followed.

Tantomile had had enough of this. She feinted a bite and dipped her head instead to retrieve the white mouse's body. Her jaws grasped empty air. " How dare you steal his blood from me?" she whispered, broiling with anger. Tantomile had no need to speak louder, the thief's ear was right next to her own and his mouth was speaking the same words, mocking her. This whole fight had made fun of her, making her believe she was striking at a kind of double when he was actually stealing the corpse beneath her own sensitive nose. Without White Mouse's blood, the dream could not end with her power being restored inside of her. Coricopat had won and he was still continuing his charade, which was insulting.

Defeated, she turned and jumped down off the pile, returning to her junkyard to end her day, the last day she would spend as what she had been for all her life. Tantomile no longer truly existed.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Still not mine.

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That night... 

Miserable and alone, Tantomile curled up, wishing she had been more sociable in the past. Then perhaps she would have her den closer to the other Jellicles. She had never felt so lost, before. Not knowing what to expect from the night, as she had only ever had one dream before in her life, Tantomile closed her eyes and tried to loosen the tension inside. The queen needed to sleep, so she could be just a little bit more prepared for her different, terrifing life. 'I wonder what a nightmare is like.' she thought absently. She had heard they were unpleasant. Instantly, she fell into unconsciousness.

Tantomile dropped down onto a dirt ground, staring face to face with the white mouse. She gave a happy purr, delighted and unconditionally accepting his appearance. The little being swiped his sharp claws across her delicate nose and gave her a look of utter disapproval. Tantomile sprung backward, shocked at this mood, which did not suit White Mouse at all. She was so surprised, she did not notice Coricopat sitting there with his tail weaving back and forth, looking smug. He spoke, "It looks like I will be the one with power, Tantomile." She glared at him, exhaling sharply to keep the blood from entering her nostrils. This...was wrong.

The white mouse swung around to face Coricopat and scratched his nose, too. He gave a startled mew, more befitting a kitten than tom. White Mouse snarled far more menacingly than a mouse should, "I should have introduced the pair of you after being declawed." The cats stared at him in horror. He shook his head, the picture of annoyance. "I was not planning to, but if you will not behave, I will do it. I brought both of you together for a reason, at my own expense. Corporeal dying is not as easy as what I do twice a night. So listen up." He looked at each of the matching duo in turn, " Coricopat, Tantomile, do you know who Grizabella is?"

Both shuddered. They had been cowed into submission by the white mouse, but their natural fear of what the former "Glamour Cat" was shook them. Some queens would sing-song rumours to their kittens, letting them know she was to be ignored and ostracized. She was mad, cannabalistic or murdering, perhaps. Grizabella was unkown, let her stay that way.

"I, at least," Tantomile offered, shooting a fiery glance to Coricopat, "would be glad to kill her, if you wished it." He echoed her, a beat behind. This jolted her memory into remembrance. "White Mouse! Why isn't he copying me again?" The confused queen retreated a step away, searching Coricopat's suddenly equally wary face for any threatening sign. The white mouse sighed, irritated.

He explained, to both of them, "Neither of you is imitating the other. I arranged it so that you would meet yesterday. I am sure, kittens, that you have noticed your tendency to act and think exactly the same. That is because you are." Coricopat hissed, not liking what he was hearing. White Mouse conveyed his desires to Tantomile, and she obeyed. He yelped as she batted him gruffly with a grey forepaw. Not too roughly, though, she had nearly done the same as he.

With barely a pause, the being continued, "Truly, the same essence, thoughts and spirit went into your making. Seperately you grew twice as strong as you would have as one. That, at least, is the reasoning behind my actions and it is working so well, I overestimated your considerable powers of resistance when I made your failure of a meeting. My manipulations were too strong, and you doubled each other and could not figure it out. To smooth _this _meeting, I tweaked your memories for forgetting. This time, I underestimated. But, my correction of the mirroring habit will hold, though it may weaken sporadically, if you let it."

He was obviously skimming over details, but when Tantomile asked, he raised a paw and denied her request. "That is all I want you to know." Disappointment creased her features, but she backed down. No matter what mistakes he had made, he always had control of who she was.

Coricopat respectfully lowered his head and inquired, "What do you want us to do?" He too was nervous of the ominous mistakes in the white mouses' workings, but decided to wait until later for details.

"Grizabella. You know that she appears each Jellicle Ball? It is her right, she was born into the tribe, as were the two of you. At the next Ball, she will ascend to the Heaviside Layer, with your help." The cats attempted to control their spluttering disbelief.

With as much control as he could manage, Coricopat said, "We have to help the worst cat of all time to the Heaviside Layer?!" Tantomile nodded, thinking this idea was absurd.

The white mouse shrugged his tiny shoulders, "She was not always considered lowly. Before, the Glamour Cat was promised a future in paradise. Grizabella is still promised this." Realization dawned on them.

"You promised her ascention?" Tantomile whispered.

The white mouse looked up at her. "She made some significant sacrifices. In return, I granted a future above. If I delay another year, she will die on this plane." He stopped, then decided they still needed encouragement. " If this does not come to pass, I will be restricted from continuing to provide your power." The queen and tom knew what decision to choose then.

Coricopat swallowed. "How could she be accepted as the one so quickly? We barely have time to plan this."

"I doubt you will even have time to find her. But I am certain you will sing it out of her. Good luck." They stared at him as he layed himself upon the ground, eyes closed, paws limp. After a moment he reopened an eye and commanded, "Well? Kill me already!"

They did so, in complete synch, a mirror image.


End file.
